Contribute

Reef Archive is an open repository of historical coral reef photographs, and anyone, anywhere in the world, is welcome to contribute. If you have reef images from pre-1990s (slides, prints, negatives or scans), we would love to hear from you.

Become an early contributor

Reef Archive is currently in a pilot phase and is operating without dedicated funding, which limits our infrastructure and capacity. We are seeking support for the project’s long-term sustainability, and the strongest case we can make to funders is a collection that shows what the archive can be. Early contributors are central to that: every image donated now helps demonstrate the value of the project.

How to contribute

Our long-term goal is to develop semi-automated workflows for ingesting historical imagery. Until then, we work with contributors directly. To get started, email info@reefarchive.org and we will guide you through the process. We can help with every step, which is roughly:

1. Digitise analogue images (slides, prints and negatives).
2. Prepare and link metadata such as who took the photograph, where and when.
3. Review and conform the metadata to our data standard.
4. Archive the images on Zenodo and add them to the Reef Archive website.

You don’t need to have everything ready, and even partial information about an image is useful. Just get in touch.

Other ways to help

If you don’t have images to contribute but would like to support the project, whether through funding, collaboration or spreading the word, please get in touch.